The modes of transportation pictured here in some desert location (Morocco, perhaps) couldn’t be more different. One is an exotic looking car and the other is, quite obviously, a camel. Yet these cars have something in common you would likely never guess.
If there’s one thing that I hate about the summer, it’s bugs. The camel shown here would likely wiggle its ears to shoo flying insects away, and oddly enough so would the car. I can explain.
While I can’t identify what type of camel is shown – if there are camel types – I do know what the vehicle is. The 1974 Ferrari CR25 was a Pininfarina concept which, from what I’ve read, did not actually have any kind of drivetrain installed.
With its low hood, I think a flat twelve from the Boxer might have worked, but there’s not a lot of room for any kind of powerplant anywhere so it appears form won over function in this thing.
The CR25 is rather dramatic-looking piece with odd pointy wheel covers but the strangest feature is reserved for the sides. You see those strange bright red arrows on the rear quarter windows that look like, maybe, somebody broke the glass and tried to cover the hole with cardboard from one of those signs that people toss around outside of a phone store? They serve a supposedly functional purpose.
Likely influenced by the air-brake feature on competition Mercedes from the fifties like the 300SLR, Pininfarina tried the same thing with the CR. Supposedly, if you were to slam on the middle pedal in this Ferrari, these little flipper “ears” behind the rear quarter windows would rise up to disrupt airflow and create drag to help out the standard wheel-mounted brakes. Considering the size of these small placards, my guess is that the four-wheel discs would be doing the lion’s share of the heavy lifting in getting your pointy-nosed Ferrari to a stop. Would they have done anything at all? If nothing else, they did have lurid orange arrows on the back sides to act as sort of 3D CHMSLs to warn motorists behind you that you’ve thrown out the anchor.
Personally, given the option of the two modes of transport, I think the right decision is pretty obvious. If you know anything about the electrical and cooling systems of early-seventies-era Ferraris (if the CR even had an engine) then you could easily surmise that the camel would be the better choice.
> I can’t identify what type of camel is shown – if there are camel types
All right.
There are two main camel types. Bactrian camels, from Bactria (modern-day Afghanistan and surrounds), have two humps. More westerly camels (Arabian camels), aka dromedaries, only have one.
Bactrian camels are also found in Mongolia, where they majestically roam the steppes, giving no shits and taking no lip from nobody. The same can be said of dromedaries, just with half the number of humps.
Camels have cousins in the new world in the form of llamas, alpacas, and the like. No humps, but the same churlishness.
They will bite, kick, and spit if you don’t treat them with the respect they command, and you will absolutely deserve it. Treat them well and they will be faithful companions who can travel more miles than a Bugatti without an oil change, less fast but in equivalent comfort. Riding a camel in areas where you’d drive a Veyron will turn heads just as much as the fancy car.
By every metric that matters, a camel is better than a Bugatti.
Camels are surprisingly high maintenance. I’m not sure if the average Ferrari buyer considers that.
Are those tires flat?
Am I a bad person for initially thinking it was some kind of weird kit car based on a Chevy Monza?
And for noticing that the louvered nose next appeared in production on a Mondial?
This Ferrari was a design study in aero streamlining. It had a Cd value of 0.256.
I just like the ridiculously wide tires on not so wide rims..
Also they clearly had the US market in mind, with those giant black bumpers. But nicely integrated. Good job Pininfarina!
It could have used some cool graphic lines going across the rear lights, hiding those boring reflectors inside, but that hadn’t really become a thing yet in 1975.
The Mercedes-Benz “Lego” lights had been invented at that time, but it took until around 1980 for the trend to spread everywhere, see for instance the DeLorean. Or the Testarossa.
It looks like what you get when you grab a Honda CR-X by the bumpers and stretch it?
OK so it wasn’t just me lol.
I was admiring the vented/louvered rocker panels (?) that apparently hide the exhaust while raising the door sill considerably.
In the coachbuilder promo shot (where the car is next to the water), the horses on the wheel covers are not aligned. Tsk tsk, Pininfarina. 🙂
I’ll take a Ferrari. I can always LS swap it
Now I want to see an LS swapped camel.
Camel + Coccaine = LS camel.
Yeah, well, we all saw how that worked out with a bear…
Not happening. Camels and Lucky Strikes are mortal enemies.
Don’t you fucking dare.
Talk to The Bishop. He’s the one that convinced me the Ferrari mechanicals and electrical are the weak point.
He’s a fool (he’s not at all). The mechanicals are pretty bombproof provided you look after them and drive them regularly. Electricals can be flakey, but no more than any other classic.
Given the mass and frontal area vs a C5 Corvette, I bet with a C5 Corvette engine, this Ferrari would get somewhere near 35 mpg cruising 70 mph, since the stock C5 gets 30 mpg under the same conditions.
That would be a GREAT LS-swap. You basically have the CdA value of a 1st gen Honda Insight with this particular Ferrari.
Is it just me – do those tires have really bizarre sidewalls (at least in the last picture)?
It’s a Bactrian camel! You can remember by the first letter. B = Bactrian = 2 humps. D = Dromedary = 1 hump. And it seems better proportioned than the car, which to me looks very top-heavy, like it’s been skipping leg day too much.
I think the saddle and baggage is giving the impression of a Bactrian, but I’d expect to see more neck fuzz and a steeper/higher front hump. I’m pretty sure it’s a Dromedary.
I’m inclined to say it’s a dromedary as well. My favorite way of remembering the difference is by Ogden Nash:
The camel has a single hump;
The dromedary, two;
Or else the other way around.
I’m never sure. Are you?
This works great as long as one remembers that it is, in fact, the other way around, and that a certain poetic license is involved in contrasting “camel” and “dromedary.”
Pikachu, by Pininfarina.
If you were a dude in the late 70’s, you definitely didn’t want to show any ear.
Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Shawn Cassidy, any of the little punks on Little House on the Prairie. NO EARS ALLOWED.
I think that the camel is an F1 hybrid.
That looks to be a dromedary camel, or as it’s known by its scientific name, Joe Camel. You can hear people in Africa all the time asking, “Is that Joe Camel?” I know nothing about that car.
All machines should have functional parts that also look like big friendly ears. Case in point, check out the range finders on the turret of the T29 tank prototype. We missed a great opportunity when this adorable beast never made it beyond the testing phase. You have to scroll down to the surviving examples to see the version with the Mickey Mouse ears.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/T29_Heavy_Tank
It would look like an adorable big friend while holding back hordes of T-55s.
Cammello Rampante
Very good.
More similarities between camels and Ferraris:
Both can be difficult to mount and dismount
Both can emit strange and unpleasant odors
Both have very distinctive sounds
Both have a large presence in Abu Dhabi
When traveling on either in the desert, a rest stop oasis is well appreciated
Beautiful shape!! Love everything except the front bumper cover.
Never insult a camel’s nose.
Between the spitting & kicking—and they allegedly kick quite well to the sides—I make a point of neither insulting nor approaching any camel
As you should. Treat a camel like you would treat your mom.
Nope: ain’t hugging a camel!